Electric Retailing: When Will I See Profits?

Deck: 
Deregulation Abroad: Still Reaching Its Potential
Fortnightly Magazine - June 1 2000
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Wait for the "second wave," when new products help suppliers escape the trench warfare of pricing.


 

Ever since electric customers were given choice of provider in the United States, much has been written about how few customers have switched providers. More volumes have been written about how risky and unprofitable is the business of electric retailing as compared to generating and wholesaling electricity.1 Taken together, these two developments might constitute an obituary for energy retailing. Perhaps because they share these sentiments, some vertically integrated utilities have exited the retailing business, and become pure distribution companies.

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